Kanelis: Snowe's departure will harm Senate

What’s more, the nation is the loser in the wake of her decision to leave the U.S. Senate at the end of this year.

The veteran Maine Republican lawmaker stunned the political world this past week with her announcement that she will call it quits. That world also was rocked when it heard her reason for leaving. She has had her stomach full of the “partisanship, polarization and the overall dysfunction of the institution,” aka the U.S. Congress.

Snowe told CNN the other day, “It’s become an all-or-nothing proposition and that failure has eroded the public confidence about the direction of the country and about governing institutions to be at the front lines of solving these problems.”

That is some concept: government helping solve problems. The tenor of the debate these days is that government is the enemy, even though we — you and I — send these individuals to Washington to represent our interests. They work for us. They do our bidding, or at least they are supposed to do our bidding. If they fail in that regard, we elect someone else to the job. That’s how representative democracy is supposed to work, right?

Snowe said it no longer works that way. Legislating — which by definition virtually requires compromise — has become a lost art in Washington. Snowe’s career included battles with her fellow Republicans as well as with Democrats, such as her opposition to the Iraq War initiated by President George W. Bush, or her joining with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown earlier in President Obama’s term. The latter action didn’t endear her with the tea party ideologues who have been elected to Congress in the past two years.

Now we see two extremes camped out on opposite ends of the playing field. They shout epithets at each other. They refuse to give in on some “principle” in which they believe.

Texas’ two U.S. senators present a bit of a contrast in style.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who also is retiring at the end of the year, has been fond for many years of boasting of her bipartisan work with the likes of Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, one of the more liberal members of the Senate. Hutchison, who never has been labeled as a hardline conservative, sought to legislate more from the middle than from the far right side of the spectrum.

Her Texas colleague, fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn, has taken a sharper edge in his public approach to tackling political differences. The scorched-earth Cornyn approach is understandable, given that he has the highly partisan job of running the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. His task is to protect his fellow Republicans from defeat and to recruit qualified Republicans to run for the Senate against those nasty Democrats.

Let’s flash back a few years. Liberal Democrats weren’t always keen on the late U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s habit of working with Republicans back in the day. But the South Texas Democrat knew better than to get sucked into a partisan battle when greater interests were on the line. He disliked government regulation of the oil industry, he favored tax cuts for business and advocated for prayer in public schools.

As for Hutchison, I recall when she actually spoke well of a leading Texas Democrat who has become a liberal legend in the Lone Star State. Hutchison was campaigning for state treasurer in 1990, seeking to succeed the late Ann Richards, who ran successfully for governor that year. I asked Hutchison what she would do differently if she were elected treasurer. She said “not a thing.” She went on to praise the work her friend Ann had done in that office; she saw no reason to mess with success.

Imagine Hutchison saying something like that today. She would be vilified as a RINO (Republican in name only) turncoat.

This is the environment Snowe is leaving behind.

Snowe is not alone. She is the sixth moderate senator to pack it in. Whoever replaces Snowe or her soon-to-depart colleagues could rip the Senate further apart and create an even greater schism among lawmakers. Or the new senators could restore some of the art of the legislating.

Perhaps members of both houses of Congress then can relearn how to give as much as they take.

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John, the problem with your analysis is that Snow did not work with the opposition, she simply voted with the opposition. It is not cooperation that makes Snowe a RINO, it is continually and consistently voting with the Dimocrats that makes her a RINO.

You titled this piece "Snowe's departure will harm Senate". I believe a better title would be "Snowe's departure will hurt my agenda for the Senate".

Our nation faces an extreme financial crisis, which the "AGN" itself has pointed out in the past. There SHOULD be strong words and hard positions taken because something MUST be done. We all know this; why are we whining about people not getting along? The dang ship is sinking! And since the president is ignoring the situation, someone has to holler about it. We've only recently seen the first weak attempt at a BUDGET from this adminstration for crying out loud. What planet are you on, "AGN"? It would be most refreshing if the "AGN" would discuss what's right for the country, and not for their party.

As for Olympia Snowe, all I can say is that now when country needs her the most, she's running away.

dm, that's pretty harsh. Kanelis just wants everybody to get along. Can you see the Senate he wants? They would all be holding hands singing Kumbyah while voting to spend us into bankruptcy, and hugging each other while passing more over-reaching legislation. Butterflies and balloons would be released after every bill is passed. How sweet. NOT - I agree with YOU.

Snowe's departure is a great thing for the Senate!!! She has been harming the Senate and Congress her whole time in office!

She is right on a few points:
She has had her stomach full of the “partisanship, polarization and the overall dysfunction of the institution,” aka the U.S. Congress.
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This is directly attributed to Obama pushing partisan, polarizing and dysfunctional policies over and over!!!
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Snowe told CNN the other day, “It’s become an all-or-nothing proposition and that failure has eroded the public confidence about the direction of the country and about governing institutions to be at the front lines of solving these problems.”
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Once again, Obama is offering up do or die policies that are killing this country!

I am so glad the Constitution was written like it was to keep from being taken over by as many nut jobs as we have in government right now!
The writers of the Constitution saw crap like this coming and put in the Checks and Balances to slow these people down till we can vote them out!
Now it is our job to do just that!
I know I would vote against Snowe if I were in her state!!